Weekend Wrap-up: LaCie giveaway, Mattrick leaves Microsoft

Before I run down the week’s news, a friendly reminder that we’re giving away a pretty nice solid state drive from LaCie, the Porsche Design P’9223 Slim SSD. We reviewed this external SSD last week and are now giving you a chance to call it yours, so check out our contest page for more details.

We had a couple of big stories this week, one being Zynga’s hiring of former Microsoft Interactive president Don Mattrick as CEO. While Xbox fans weren’t showing Mattrick any love — mostly because he told opponents of the Xbox One’s online check-in requirement to buy 360s instead — Zynga is apparently confident enough in Mattrick to transition the company’s founder, Mark Pincus, out of the CEO spot and into a chairman role.

Our Jeff Weisbein wrote a pretty brilliant article about why Apple hired Paul Deneve to work closely with CEO Tim Cook on “special projects.” Deneve, the CEO of fashion house Yves Saint Laurent, worked for Apple in the past and now has extensive fashion industry experience. Some might find this match puzzling, but it’s a hire that only Apple would think to make. I don’t want to ruin Jeff’s article for you, but here’s a one-word hint going in: wearables.

Some other news that hit this week: We got our first look at an ad for the Moto X and were impressed, but leaks shortly after left us a bit disappointed. The Pebble smartwatch made serious inroads toward increasing brand recognition, striking a deal with Best Buy to bring the watches to retail stores starting tomorrow. In the world of media, Apple and Time Warner Cable came to an agreement that will bring live TV channels to the Apple TV, the catch being that you need to subscribe to Time Warner Cable. Oh, and Samsung snatched up Boxee!

Thanks for catching up with us on the week’s news. Check back here next Saturday for another Weekend Wrap-up.